


Accordion Love

by i_am_girlfriday



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Dorkiness, M/M, Musical Instruments, Romantic Gestures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-18
Updated: 2014-07-18
Packaged: 2018-02-09 11:03:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1980507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_am_girlfriday/pseuds/i_am_girlfriday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek’s secret talent is playing the accordion, but what if he's not the only accordion player in Beacon Hills?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Accordion Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bleep0bleep](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bleep0bleep/gifts).



> Based on this [cracky edit](http://bleep0bleep.tumblr.com/post/91996886010/headcanon-derek-can-play-the-accordion-i-dont-have-a) of Derek in lederhosen with an accordion.
> 
> Everything I know about accordions (which is nothing) I found via Google and Wikipedia.

The accordion is a pretty weird instrument for a child to want to play, but Derek was a weird kid. For his sixth birthday he asked for a train set, a printing calculator like the one his parents used to do the bills, and lederhosen just like Kurt Von Trapp’s. He was pretty heavily going through his Julie Andrews’ musical phase, and he liked _The Sound of Music_ because he could really identify with the plight of the Von Trapps. Laura, who at age ten was already a master at egging her dorky brother on, suggested that he ask for accordion lessons to go along with his lederhosen. Derek had very little self-preservation skills as a kindergartner, and thus could not see the scheme for what it was. Laura was preparing to humiliate Derek for the rest of his life with ridiculous pictures of a little boy in lederhosen with his accordion.

Derek’s parents loved all their children equally, but it was only Derek that they humored to such an extent. He was their sensitive child amongst the brutes. He believed in things long past when he should, even Cora discovered the truth about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy before Derek. So when Derek begged for accordion lessons, the Hales were not surprised. They purchased him a child’s plastic toy accordion hoping the phase would pass, but this did not deter him. Derek would bring it up every night at dinner and explain all the compelling reasons he should be allowed accordion lessons. He used visual aids that included crayon drawings and clippings from polka magazines. He cited Weird Al Yankovic as his inspiration--he had been trained on the accordion as a child and look how famous he was! Finally, Talia relented. Derek could have accordion lessons, if he would wait patiently until he was big enough to hold the massive instrument. 

Derek understood that he was unusually strong for a child his age because he was a werewolf. He also understood that he had to keep his supernatural abilities hidden from the outside world, but being six meant that he struggled with being patient. At six and three-quarters, Derek finagled lessons and a sparkling new 48 Bass Piano Accordion. His teacher, Heinrich, was an octogenarian who only had a handful of students around Beacon County. He drove an old white ‘67 Volkswagen Beetle and came to the Hale house on Saturday mornings at 8 AM for Derek’s lessons. He charged Talia a flat rate of seven dollars a lesson, along with the promise of bottomless coffee in her best china teacups. It was Derek’s job to fill the first cup and walk with it to the music room, careful not to spill a drop.

Derek was not a child prodigy on the accordion, but not for lack of trying. He spent hours practicing and immersing himself in accordion music of the world. His favorite music by far was from Colombia, and by age ten, Derek was a massive Juanes fan and dreamed of going to the Festival de la Leyenda Vallenata. Laura took every opportunity to tease Derek for his strange obsession, but he was so earnest and passionate about the accordion that it just stopped being funny after a while. Luckily for Laura, Derek did not progress through puberty gracefully. Derek spoke with a lisp when wore his retainers. His voice cracked and warbled until he was nearly sixteen. And the trademark Hale eyebrows were not two so much as one continuous swath across his forehead. Derek took the teasing in stride, or as well as a boy could who was raised among strong personalities.

Sometime during high school, Derek’s interest in the accordion began to wane. He started playing basketball and giving girls more than a lingering glance. Paige laughed at him but not maliciously when she found out her played the accordion, and Derek never talked about himself much with Kate (and perhaps that should have been his first clue that something was wrong). After the fire and losing his whole family, Derek couldn’t so much as listen to accordion music without wanting to break down into tears. Laura never teased him about it again, and the fact that Derek played the accordion became another thing about himself be buried beneath stubble, leather, hard stares, and the kind of self-preservation he’d never had as a kid.

***

Derek never once thought of replacing his accordion, until the day he read in the Beacon Hills newspaper that his dear old accordion teacher had passed. For weeks afterward, the accordion was on his mind and the music called to him. He heard cubmia thumping through the open window of a car passing through his neighborhood. Lydia inexplicably picked _Amélie_ for pack movie night instead of _The Notebook_. Isaac changed Derek’s hard rock preset radio station to a Spanish station as a joke, but Derek was powerless to the norteño music and never bothered to change the preset back. If anyone noticed Derek’s strange behavior, no one said anything.

After a month, Derek decided he just needed to get a damn accordion again. It might bring back painful memories of his family, but he was finally ready to face them. He was at a good place with Scott’s pack, and maybe things would be even better once he had music back in his life. Derek was never one to do things by halves, so when he started researching accordions, he only looked at the top of the line. He found gorgeous accordions that were several thousands of dollars, and while he had money, he really couldn’t justify the expense. He hadn’t played accordion in years. What if he was terrible? What if he’d forgotten everything he’d learned? What if he played it for a week and then lost interest? Derek decided to try a more frugal approach and scoured the tri-county Craig’s List posts. About a two weeks later, something promising popped up right in Beacon Hills.

**1520 - Red Titano LMM 120 $995  
** Piano Accordion 19" 41/120 20lbs  
Reeds 3/4 LMM, Registers 2/0  
Gorgeous candy apple red finish, musette tuned.  
Includes Straps and Case.  
Price $995. Cash only.  
Must pick up.  
By appointment only. 

Derek used the provided e-mail address and set up an appointment with the seller. The seller e-mailed back with a time and an address and Derek’s stomach dropped. Derek debated all day about whether or not to go. It could be a sick joke, a prank Laura was pulling from beyond the grave. Or it could be a huge coincidence and Derek was making a big deal out of nothing. Derek decided it was most likely the latter and arrived at 4 PM at the Stilinkskis’ home. Derek parked and headed toward the open garage. Sheriff Stilinski was laying a towel out on a workbench and carefully taking the accordion from the case.

“Hello, son. Long time no see,” the Sheriff barely paused from his task to greek Derek. “Stiles isn’t home this weekend, so I’m guessing this isn’t a social call.” 

Derek had become something of a consultant for the Beacon County Sheriff’s Department, and while he and the Sheriff were on cordial, professional terms, he didn’t often come by unless it was to see Stiles. “It’s not a social call, exactly. I’m actually here about the ad.” Derek willed himself not to blush. “I’m here to see the accordion.”

The Sheriff turned toward Derek and gave him the look he often gave Derek, one that said, _werewolves, kanimas, and berserkers, fine, but I draw the line at time travel_. “You play?”

Derek shuffled his feet and scratched the back of his neck. “Um, yeah.”

The Sheriff chuckled and then the laugh deepened until his shoulders shook and he was out of breath. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I swear I’m not laughing at you.”

Derek waited patiently. He was used to this sort of reaction.

“It’s just that Stiles would get such a kick out of this.”

Of course he would, because what could be funnier than the sourwolf himself playing a polka?

“He begged me not to sell it, but it’s just been collecting dust in the attic. And when I read that Heinrich passed, I knew it was time to get rid of this old thing.”

“Stiles plays?”

The Sheriff shrugged his shoulders. “It was his mom’s. She won it in a bet, never played though. When Stiles was about nine, he decided he wanted lessons for his birthday. His mom thought it was a hoot.”

“Was he any good?”

“Yeah, not too bad. He was more of a tinkerer. He dabbled with the piano, accordion, guitar. Finally settled on the drums. Nearly blew out my ear drums.” He dusted off the case and motioned for Derek to come check out the instrument. “You play?”

“Yeah. Haven’t played in years though…” Derek felt a lump forming in his throat.

“You want to test this bad boy out?” The Sheriff stood back and gave Derek space to pick up the accordion.

Derek didn’t need to think about it, he was going to buy this accordion and he didn’t even care if it was broken. It belonged to Stiles and therefore it was _the one_. He didn’t want to examine those feelings too carefully. He couldn’t explain why he’d spent two days looking for him when he was possessed by the nogitsune. He didn’t know why he recognized at least ten emotions from his scent alone, but could only pick up on four or five from everyone else. He had no clue why he could pick Stiles’ heartbeat out in a crowd. He never wanted to put a name to the thing he felt for Stiles. Derek shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out an envelope. 

“Nah. I trust you.” Derek handed over the cash. 

“You sure?”

“Yeah. You can count it.”

The Sheriff smiled warmly, the skin around his eyes crinkling. “I trust you.”

***

Derek expected Stiles to text him right away and give him a hard time about the accordion, but his phone was surprisingly silent. During that month’s pack meeting, Stiles said nothing, almost as if he was respecting Derek’s privacy. In Derek’s hours of free time, of which there were many now that the territory was safe and the pack was off at college, he practiced the accordion. He got reacquainted with his old friend. He played scales until his fingering was quick and unselfconscious. He played songs from memory, and when they didn’t sound quite right he Googled for the correct notes. The music was therapeutic, it unleashed long buried feelings and woke him up to others he’d ignored and stifled.

After struggling to learn a moving tango piece, Derek decided that maybe it was time to admit defeat. His ability would never match what he heard inside his head. His whole childhood he’d yearned to be a better player, and when he’d finally shown signs of improving, he abandoned the instrument for trivial teenage pursuits. Chasing skirts led to nothing but heartbreak, death, and devastation. Perhaps if he’d stayed committed to the accordion, his whole life would have turned out different.

During another pack movie night spent rewatching _Amélie_ after Stiles’ latest failed romance, Stiles declared that he was done with love. “No one’s going to love me the way Amélie loves Nino,” he moaned with a spoonful of ice cream dangling from his mouth. “I mean, look at the way she looks at him.” Stiles pointed to the screen where Allison had paused it. Amélie was hiding from Nino in the 2 Moulins and giving him surreptitious glances. “Can you imagine someone doing at big romantic gesture for me?” 

Derek ducked his head and offered to make more popcorn and refill everyone’s drinks. If anyone noticed the way his cheeks burned, none of them commented.

Later that night while practicing the accordion, Derek had an epiphany. He remembered Heinrich’s advice about playing the accordion and how he’d never understood it as a child. He said that music was the shorthand of emotion. Derek dismissed it as the musings of an old man, but then years later he stumbled upon that exact quote while reading a biography on Tolstoy. Laura had teased him relentlessly for his book collection. She told him he should just go to college because no normal person read Russian literature for fun. But Derek didn’t read Russian literature for fun, he read it because it spoke to him. It was beautiful and painful, complex and misunderstood. It hurt to read it, but in the best way possible. Reading the Russian literary greats moved him like the accordion moved him. It was serendipity that his two first loves in life helped him understand the third.

Derek agonized over what to do next. He had deep feelings for Stiles, but he was just like Amélie, paralyzed by fear. Derek had no idea if his feelings were reciprocated, but even if Stiles felt something for Derek, he didn’t seem to be in a place to start a new relationship. So Derek waited while Stiles recovered from his breakup. He was a good friend and listened to Stiles vent on Facetime. He brought Stiles curly fries and coffee during midterms. Derek even volunteered to collect a very hung over Stiles from a spring break trip gone wrong in Las Vegas. Derek had finally mastered the virtue of patience, and for the first time it didn’t cause him bodily pain to think of how proud his mother would be of him.

Derek waited three months before he made his move. Three months had been plenty of time for Derek to learn the piece of music and perfect it. He knew it was the right song when he caught Stiles humming it one afternoon, his foot keeping time with the music. Derek chose a night Stiles would be home alone. The Sheriff always worked night shifts on Wednesdays. If Laura had been alive, she would have insisted that Derek dress up. She probably would have bought him new lederhosen for the occasion. Derek laughed to himself as he got ready, and again he was struck by just how much he’d changed. Memories and thoughts that once made him ache with loneliness now made him smile.

Derek drove over to the Stilinskis’ house with his candy apple red Titano and willed his hands to stop sweating. He’d play terribly if his hands were slippery. When he arrived he noticed Stiles sitting near his window. He looked like he was on the computer. Derek tried to respect Stiles’ privacy these days, but he hoped Stiles wouldn’t mind Derek lurking in the trees outside his window this one time. Derek scanned the street and gave a half shrug. He hadn’t really figured out what he’d do if a neighbor spotted him or if Scott decided to drop by.

Derek found the perfect place to play under Stiles’ window. He was mostly hidden from the street, but he could still see Stiles. Derek took a deep breath and started playing _J'y Suis Jamais Alle_. He played for about twenty seconds before Stiles looked down and spotted him. Derek almost wished he had a camera to document the look of shock on Stiles’ face, but ultimately he was glad there was no one there to film Derek’s grand gesture because he wasn’t sure where it was headed. Stiles flailed for a moment before he was able to pry his window open. Derek put every ounce of passion into playing. He channeled all of his pent up emotions about Stiles into the music. Derek could hear each feeling like they were words--there was lust, irritation, trust, comfort, family, hope, friendship, fondness, laughter, future, and love--all on display. Stiles let Derek play through the whole song before he backed away from the window with a smile. Derek started from the beginning and waited patiently as Stiles clambered down the stairs. When he reached the yard he was grinning like a loon and his heart rate was elevated. 

“I would fling myself at you, but your accordion is literally cock blocking me.”

Derek tried not to lose his place in the song, but it was hard since he was laughing and smiling back at Stiles. He felt like his face was going to crack in half from the force of it.

“Is that my mom’s accordion?”

Derek nodded. “I guess your dad didn’t tell you who the buyer was.”

Stiles shook his head. “You’re really good. You didn’t just learn this for your grand romantic gesture, did you?”

“Nope. I started lessons when I was a kid.” Derek really wanted to put down the instrument and kiss the hell out of Stiles, but he had enough patience (just barely) to play the last few bars of music. “Is this romantic enough for you?”

Stiles leaned against the nearest tree and waited. When Derek played his final note Stiles clapped. “It’s perfect.”

Derek removed the accordion from his chest and placed it carefully back into the case. He had just enough time to stand before Stiles climbed him like a tree.

“That was amazing. You were amazing,” Stiles said while peppering Derek’s face with kisses. “I can’t believe you wooed me with your mad accordion playing skills.”

Derek held Stiles up with one arm and used his other hand to cradle the back of his head. He pulled back from Stiles from a moment just to look at him up close. He so rarely got to admire the view and he found himself entranced. Stiles leaned in so their foreheads touched.

“I can’t believe you wooed me,” he said with a sigh. “Me.”

“You,” Derek said and then he leaned in and kissed Stiles like it was the only thing in the world he knew how to do.

**Author's Note:**

> Here's [the song](http://youtu.be/eLv6-5oHs4U) that Derek plays for Stiles.
> 
> Thanks for reading! Say hi on [tumblr](http://moonwasours.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
